The Crash
by Miss R T
Summary: When Artemis and Butler fly to America in the latest plane, the Freestreamer, dirty seats and cheap TVs are the last thing they have to worry about. Can everyone he knows be dead?
1. The Flight

"That is one reason why airports are bad money-makers; all of the shops sell the same items. The shops should sell different products, because a child is hardly going to go into a shop, buy a chocolate bar, and then repeat their purchase in the shop next door! Also, the shops sell magazines, food and drinks at astronomical prices; if people were sensible, they would buy things before entering the airport, because there are the same types of shops only five minutes away where the items are up to 50% cheaper."

"Not many people are that sensible."

"That is a good point."

Artemis Fowl walked through the parting crowd, arriving at the first-class desk slightly quicker than his bodyguard, Butler, who handed the tickets and passports to the lady at the desk. The lady, a snooty-looking woman with a hooked nose and a pair of glasses on a chain, took the tickets and stared at Artemis with a mixture of contempt and annoyance. _You clearly believe that I should not be here, you should,_ Artemis thought. _Well, hard luck._

After a minute of verifying the fact that Artemis and Butler were who they said they were (which actually was quite odd, as both of them had more that twelve other passports with separate names), the lady sniffed and pointed the pair through the doors to the state of the art new plane, the A-Star Freestreamer. Planes were something which bored Butler, but fascinated Artemis. In fact, in Artemis' spare time, apart from writing romance novels, Artemis designed eco-friendly planes to please his father. Butler chose to read instead.

The reason the Irish boy and the Eurasian giant were flying out of the Dublin airport was that Artemis was secretly meeting with a friend of his, Stefan Grismar, to secure plans for their 'secret' project. Even Butler had no idea what the plans were. Anyway, the Fowl parents had decided to stay at home instead of flying to the edge of Russia with their son.

The first class seats next to the window were the only seats Butler could comfortably sit in. There was just enough leg room for him to sit normally, whereas Artemis had enough room to fit him lying down vertically between his seat and the seat in front. Not only that, but a TV popped out of the arm rest. "Very impressive," Artemis commented.

"The TV?"

"Obviously not. The TV is cheap and has a cracked screen. No, the sheer size of this plane in comparison to the amount of fuel it needs to operate is drastically different to the normal fuel-consuming beast of a machine."

"Yes. Very impressive." Butler gave up attempting to understand the young genius and settle back in his chair, enjoying a rare moment of peace, if you count peace as having to listen to Artemis.

The plane soon rolled off the runway and started to fly through the cold winter air. Artemis was investigating the contents of a side pocket when he suddenly stuck his hand in something sticky. Artemis gingerly pulled his hand out again and noticed that it was now covered in leftover chewing gum from another passenger. Without another word, he undid his seat belt and rushed to the toilet to wash it off. Butler could not help laughing a little at the look of complete disgust on Artemis' face. Along the corridor, Artemis quickly shut the door to the toilet after watching a girl enter the other toilet.

Butler was gazing out of the window when he heard it. A low, rumbling sound unlike anything heard so far on the journey. Then a small something flicked past the window. Butler closed his book and looked fully outside as two Japanese fighter pilots flew by, armed and ready. Butler was so surprised that he almost jumped out of his seat, only kept in by his seat belt. The Japanese fighters shot the wings, and the machinery broke away as if cut by a knife. The passengers inside the planes soon got the fact that they were being shot at and panicked. Butler was worried that the shooting was becoming extremely close.

Artemis had finished washing his hands when he heard the turmoil outside. When a person ran by shouting, "Guns! Help! Planes! Help!" Artemis managed to attain the knowledge that Butler had gained moments earlier. He pulled at the handle to get out of the toilet. It would not budge. The door was stuck. Artemis almost broke the handle trying to get out. Eventually, Artemis realized that, if the plane did crash, it would not really matter where he was.

Butler had got up from his seat and was running to the bathroom to rescue Artemis when the pilot of the second Japanese fighter finally got a hit. The floor underneath Butler was blown away. Butler fell down into the darkness and cold. Luckily, the plane was not high, (it was below the clouds) and Butler was wearing a parachute under his suit. He activated it before he hit the water, and gently floated to the unforgiving seas. By that time, the plane had hit the sea, and the wreckage was unbelievable. The chances of Artemis surviving were so miniscule, that Butler did not even try to think about it. Butler simply floated there for an age.

Artemis was in a state of surprising calm. The boy, before the plane crash, was still stuck in the bathroom, dreading the inevitable destruction of his life. _There was so much I didn't do,_ he thought. _So much I didn't see. _There was a rushing in his ears as the plane closed the metres between the machine and the ocean. _I never will see Mother again. Or Father. Or Myles and Beckett. Or…or Holly._ There was a crash, an explosion of yellow rubber, and Artemis fell into blackness.


	2. The Fall

Holly Short opened her door as a torrent of rain fell on her from her drain. Water dripped from seemingly everywhere; the houses, the boards, the People… Being underground, you would expect there to be no weather at all, but Foaly and the other LEP techies had designed new weather machines, creating actual weather like rain and snow. Luckily for Holly and the other fairies, nobody had thought of using snow, as snow was too cold for the People's liking. The weather reflected the weather in Dublin, which suited Holly perfectly (Ireland being her favourite country and just outside there being where Artemis lived). Yet, in Holly's opinion, the weather machine was completely pointless. Why would you want to move rain underground? Also, weather could not be used as an excuse to avoid work, as it is carefully monitored to have just enough to not totally delay everyone.

Holly quickly made her way through Haven, where the pavements were slick with moisture. She was waiting for the call from Foaly, giving her the latest news on everything. Foaly always liked to gloat for hours on the fact that Mud Men were behind in their development compared to him. However, oddly, Foaly had not called yet, when he usually called before she left her flat.

The LEP building rose out of the rainy gloom, covered in lighted dots representing windows. Holly pushed her way through the double doors and, as she had no immediate recon mission to do, decided to visit Foaly directly. She quickly navigated through the corridors and arrived at Foaly's office. Holly knocked on the door. Foaly did not answer. Ignoring the silence, she pushed her way into the office and saw Foaly sitting at his desk, staring at the computer as if it did not exist. "Foaly? Is there something wrong?" In effect, a rather stupid question as Foaly was clearly not feeling or looking normal.

Foaly twisted his head round and saw Holly standing there. "Holly…You need to see this…" On the screen of his computer was a human TV news report. The title announced, 'Japanese start giant invasion.' At once, her mood changed. Foaly clicked 'play' and the video report began. At first, it was an overview of damage in Ireland, but the report led on to talk about the plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean. 'The plane, which took off at 8:30 this evening, crashed after only ten minutes in the air when the Japanese fighter pilots arrived. Currently, there have been no signs of life in the area.'

Foaly turned his chair to face Holly. "What's Artemis doing today?"

Holly twisted the ring on her finger. "Flying to America to visit one of his…" It hit her then. "He wasn't…Surely…" Foaly brought up another file; a list of all of the passengers on the plane. Artemis and Butler's name stood out in bold font.

Holly could not think for several minutes. According to Foaly, she collapsed onto the floor and he propped her up on the wall. The enormity of the situation hit her. Artemis and Butler… dying in a plane crash…such a mundane way to die. Surviving trolls, homicidal fairies, killer American phone-business owners, no! It was a plane.

Suddenly, Holly got up and left the room. Foaly did not stop her and she was glad for it. The elf stumbled out of the building and back down the damp streets which seemed totally unimportant now. Nothing mattered…not anymore. Artemis was gone. Lost. Forever. And she had never told him her feelings. What a waste. Holly entered her flat and fell onto the bed and cried, silently and slowly.

Foaly held his head in his hands. _Holly must be feeling awful_, he thought. _She has lost so much. _A buzz on the computer made him look up. A report from a recon team surveying the damage of the plane had just appeared. He opened it. The wreckage was slowly dispersing across the ocean. The equipment was totally ruined. Survivors: 0. Foaly clicked the button to destroy the message, when another e-mail arrived. This one said the same as the last, except for two words.

Survivors: 2.


	3. The Impact

"Hello?"

Artemis was floating in a black sea. Nothing was visible around him, nothing existed. He felt hard rubber scrape against his foot. The world seemed totally smooth, but rocking from side to side. Artemis tried to get up and found that his muscles would not obey him. One of his arms was dead, twisted awkwardly underneath him. His surroundings smelt of salt and fire, and the sound of waves and an incessant buzzing beat his eardrums. Then there was a painful poke in his side.

Artemis felt a tapping on his head and heard a voice speaking Gnommish above him. "Hello!" As Artemis was unable to move, he could not respond. "D'Arvit… It's Artemis Fowl!" Artemis was lifted with his feet above the floor and violently shaken. "Mud Boy! Wake up!" His eyes were shaken open for a moment and Artemis saw a green face with large eyes and a shocked expression staring anxiously back at him. Two wings, one with a very translucent patch as if something had punched through it, flapped as fast as a hummingbird's, propelling him a few inches above the ground. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Artemis realized that this was a sprite.

Artemis attempted to speak. "What…hap…?" The words cracked in his parched throat as his eyelids fluttered down. Instead on answering him, the sprite radioed his commander. Artemis could not tell what he was saying, and felt like he had no need to. It would be something like, "What's the Mud Boy doing here? What should I do?"

Minutes passed. When the sprite finally finished speaking to his commander, he did not stop and bother to tell Artemis what he was doing; he just bundled him up in cam-foil and flew away. Artemis gave in to his aching bones and drifted back into unconsciousness.

Artemis woke up alone on a small, lumpy bed in a room with white walls and a cracked ceiling. Artemis' head was swimming and pounding from a headache. He tried to sit up, but it was a too painful. Artemis gently eased himself back onto the bed, vowing not to try that again, but it was already too late. His arms were sore; his right was in a sling. His spine felt bruised and his back was covered in scratches. He sighed, trying to remember what happened…

It was a matter of seconds before a small, tanned figure rushed into the room and was by his side. "Arty!" Holly gushed, wiping a tear from her eye. "You're alright! I was so worried…"

"W-what happened?" Artemis stuttered.

"Well, a team of Recon and Retrieval flew out to check what had happened, and Chix he found you floating on a lifeboat in the middle of the wreckage, so he called Commander Kelp to say that he had found you, and he told him to bring you in…"

Artemis rested his forehead on his hand and moaned, "No. I mean, _what _happened? What was I doing in a lifeboat?"

"Oh. Don't you remember anything?"

"Not much. I boarded a plane, then I went to the bathroom, but that's it."

"You crashed. The plane went down. I… I thought that…"

Artemis was overwhelmed. Holly had never been so hesitant. It was unlike her. "Are you alright, Holly?"

"Am I alright? I should be asking you that. But why did you have to make me think that you had DIED? Why didn't you die?" Suddenly, Holly was angry with him, and laughing hysterically at the same time. Her hands were shaking as she straightened the sheet on the bed. Artemis was starting to worry about her when he heard another whinnying voice respond.

"I think I know why." Foaly the centaur called from the doorframe, stroking his beard thoughtfully. He walked in, all four hooves clopping against the white tiles. "I didn't think about this before, but the 'brand new state-of-the-art' plane you were flying in, the A-Star Freestreamer, designed some new security and protection equipment, which obviously seemed to fail. I think that they installed giant lifeboats inside the walls of the bathrooms to take out for passengers. These lifeboats were unexpectedly released and cushioned the impact for you." Foaly was uncharacteristically grim, despite the lofty way he was talking.

Surrounded by fairy friends, Artemis was hit by a rather unfortunate revelation. "What happened to Butler?"

Holly looked away. Foaly answered with, "Erm…"

Artemis could have guessed from the silence that something was wrong, but he ignored it. "You found him?"

Holly spoke up. "Well…No. We didn't find him alive or dead. We didn't even find a shred of his clothing. Nothing. He seems to have completely disappeared."

* * *

Butler was picked up by a rescue boat that came to investigate the wreckage a long time after the fairies had arrived. A young lifeguard with dark hair tied back into a ponytail pulled him onto the boat. "Well, sir," he said, slightly too enthusiastically, "I'm impressed you managed to swim this far out from the wreckage."

Butler nodded, keeping his eyes down. Butler was given a blanket and told to change out of his wet Hugo Boss suit in the cabin. He forlornly trudged to the back of the boat, pulled open the door and instead of changing lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. After about half an hour, the boat turned around and started to head back into shore. Butler heard the lifeguard muttering outside on the radio.

"Can't believe he survived…"

"Nobody else…"

"Hope they scrap the lot of them…"

Butler stared blankly at the ceiling.

* * *

Holly stared at Artemis through the glass.

"This may not be the time for it, but I have more bad news." Foaly pulled out a laptop from a bag he was carrying. "This just arrived on Human TV." Holly took the laptop and looked at the headline…

* * *

As soon as the boat had hit the docks, Butler tried to leave the lifeboat, but the lifeguard who had given him the blanket stopped him. "Excuse me, sir, but I think I should take you to hospital. You've been through a hell of an accident."

"Actually, I can take care of myself," said the bodyguard.

"No, really. You could be in shock, have head trauma…"

"Trust me, I've been through worse."

"I doubt it. What's worse than almost dying?"

_Oh, I don't know_, Butler thought sarcastically as he pulled out a soggy wallet. He handed the lifeguard ten hundred euro notes.

"The shore's that way. Don't trip over on your first step." The lifeguard plucked the money from Butler's hand and turned away to go into the cabin. Butler slipped across the deck and lowered himself down onto the dock.

The sky was grey and cloudy overhead. The docks were almost deserted; only serious sailors were wandering about now. Butler found a phone box and put a call through to Fowl Manor to tell them… everything. Strangely, the phone was disconnected. He placed the phone back on the hook, feeling empty. Eventually, he found a small hotel out of town with a few rooms free, and checked into a suite.

Butler lay staring at the ceiling.

There was a swish as the evening paper was slipped under his door. Butler picked it up, hesitantly.

Did Butler believe that Artemis was dead? It was hard to say. Emotionally, Butler did not accept it. Technically, he knew that Artemis could not have survived that without specialist equipment. However, others had written Artemis off dead before; he lived and they regretted it. Either way, Butler was not hysterical or unstable. Not too unstable.

The paper was a local journal, with black and white pictures and huge headlines. It was the very first headline that shocked Butler more than anything so far. And it was the very same headline that Holly was staring at underground on Foaly's laptop screen.

'DUBLIN AND SURROUNDING AREA BOMBED BY JAPANESE!'


	4. Submersion

Hi,

This is a quick note about this last chapter. There are lots of changes I want to make, but I'm going to after I finish my GCSE preparation work. I thought you might want to read this anyway, as a sort of taster to the finished chapter 4 later. If you spot spelling and grammar mistakes, it's only because I haven't had time to change them yet.

Anyway, enjoy! Or, not enjoy, as it's sort of depressing…

Miss R T

Artemis was sat in the dark. The room was black, and Artemis refused to turn on the lights. His back was hunched, his eyes closed and one hand was holding his head. His wasn't thinking. He wasn't plotting. He wasn't even showing any emotion. He couldn't. Artemis had lost Butler, Mother, Father, and his brothers in the space of 10 hours. Wh…why…

Butler was out in the middle of a field, trying to avoid patches of mud and cowpats. This was the same field where Artemis, Holly and Butler had arrived out of one of the fairy terminals, so he assumed that if he could find it, he could go to Foaly and ask him to check for Artemis. As for the Fowl family… Well, what could he do?

Foaly was watching his FCTV screens when he noticed something odd over Terminal 24. Something apparently impossible. Butler, most definitely alive, was tapping his foot on the grass next to the camera. Foaly immediately called the terminal and shouted for them to pull him in.

Butler was feeling slightly perplexed until the ground opened up under him and he was pulled down. The hole was very dark for a while but it started be lighter as the hole widened. Butler's movement slowed down and he hit the ground very gently, and was like simply sitting on the floor rather than falling.

"Are you Butler?" asked an impertinent fairy.

"Yes. Why?"

"There's somebody who wants to see you."

Artemis after a while fell back on his pillows and started to dream. He was finishing a deal with a Chinese robber about a forged painting when there was a gunshot and Artemis had surprisingly managed to jump down two flights of stairs, followed by a high-speed chase through the streets. There was a bang, a huge white cloud of dust and the dream changed. He was in a dark room, lying down, when the ghost of Butler had floated into the room and was watching him. Holly followed the giant through the door. Artemis breathed slowly and deeply as he realized that his dream was a reality.

"Butler…" he murmured. "They're dead."

"I know."

Sasha Calcutt had a massive headache. And a painful leg. And an uncomfortable back. And was feeling hungry. Why was that? Well, in the last few hours she had crashed in a plane and…

Sasha was an orphan from London, whose mother had died when she was very young and her father had died not long after. She had lived in an orphanage for almost ten years now, and was aged fifteen. On the plane, she had been on her way to a beach resort in Florida, and had just gone to the bathroom for a few minutes when the fighter planes had arrived. The door was jammed (the doors on the plane had all been made by a mass production machine and all had the same default) and she had resigned herself to death when a burst of yellow had whacked her reason out of perspective and she had fallen unconscious. Sasha sat up, pushing back her long, brown hair which had been covering her brown eyes. _Where am I?_ she thought. Sasha was sitting on a bed covered in white sheets, in a whitewashed room with no features at all. There was a door opposite her, but she looked down at her leg and found it bandaged up. Best not to walk yet.

Within minutes, a small person walked into Sasha's room. The person had tanned skin, pointed ears and copper red hair. _Unusual,_ thought Sasha. _Pointed ears_. "Can I help?" she said.

"Err… yes. My name is Commander Kelp of LEPrecon. And you are Sasha Calcutt."

"That's right. Why am I here? Is this a hospital?"

"Vaguely. You are receiving very good healthcare here, better than human's hospitals at least, but you are in the Haven police cell."

Sasha was already suspicious. "You're not human," she said slowly.

"No. I am a fairy. Or do you know that already?" Obviously, Sasha was surprised by this information, but she wasn't actually overwhelmed. Her subconscious accepted it.

"Did you save me from the plane crash?"

"Hold on… Aren't you shocked by fairies existence?"

"No."  
"Oh. Well… I have to leave now." Commander Kelp slowly backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Sasha listened closely and could faintly hear snatches of a furious voice outside her door. "Are you…checked…properly? No…at all!"

"Yeah, Commander…no, I did…"  
"And…human?"  
"…No, my…didn't…scanner. That's… he…in."

"What…I…do?"  
"Keep…I don't know. I…deal…Artemis...Bye."

"Foaly!"

Sasha smiled. _If this is what my whole holiday is going to be like, this will be a lot more fun then I thought._


End file.
